According to the NIH, mothers can ward off postpartum depression by taking a prenatal vitamin to boost low iron levels. Mothers with iron deficiency were twice as likely to be at risk for PPD. Also, in case you didn’t know, counseling can help or stave off PPD as well.
Another NIH study has suggested that people who don’t respond to antidepressants could be aided by an injection of ketamine. Ketamine is primarily used for anesthesia. According to researchers, a dose of ketamine helped improve more than half of the participants’ mood in 2 hours (all 7 of them) while 71 percent felt better after 24 hours (all 13 of them). Supposedly, the effects lasted for a week for a third of the participants (all 4 of them). That’s very nice and all, but I’m looking forward to the follow-up study that analyzes ketamine’s long-term effects and safety.
A departure from news — are you bipolar? Take this quiz to figure it out! (P.S. Don’t take the quiz seriously.)
Dawdy over at Furious Seasons writes about a recent study that ties smoking with a “heightened risk of suicide in patients with bipolar disorder.” And an excerpt of his conversation with a DEA agent at the end of his post is awesome.
I’m also behind on reading many of the blogs on my blogroll so I’m doing my best to catch up – sorry for the delay…
depression introspection 
Having experienced postpartum depression myself, I can tell you that my prenatal vitamins definitely did NOT prevent it from occurring. Hope you’ll check out my PPD blog at http://postpartumprogress.typepad.com! I like your blog!